New works by Kelly Reemtsen, a homage to Bridget Riley
The gallery is delighted to soon be showing two new prints by contemporary artist Kelly Reemtsen.
We recently visited the print studio in South East London for a preview of the new works. Reemtsen has overlaid woodcut with screenprint, the as-yet-untitled pink work with the wrench comprising 18 states, or layers, the other 15. Each print is from an edition of 25, with 5 artist proofs and 3 printer proofs.
Reemtsen worked with printers Advanced Graphics – Cameron Lindo was the master printer, the project managed by Bob Saich. Reemtsen considers the works a homage to British artist and Op Art cornerstone Bridget Riley. In 1968, Riley’s suite of screenprints Untitled (Nineteen Greys) was printed by the same Bob Saich during his time at Kelpra Studio. Founded in the late fifties as a commercial sikscreen printing business, Kelpra (a name compiled from founder Chris Prater’s surname and his wife’s maiden name Kelly) did much to elevate the British art world’s regard for screenprinting from a commercial process to an accessible and flexible fine art medium.
Inspired by Riley’s optical patterns, Reemtsen’s softly-pointed ellipses and stripes swim amidst the subtle woodcut markings, like a watermark. The surface of the print is activated from static to fluid with undulating waves of movement.
Reemtsen is best known for her works addressing the role of modern women. Here she continues the motif of depicting anonymous female figures in feminine 1950’s dresses, wielding heavy duty tools. In these two prints, the background pattern has been scaled down and clothes her figures – a statement on how often hard-working women all too easily fade into the back ground.
Reemtsen lives and works in LA. She has studied printmaking since the 1990s; an artist in residence at the Venice Printmaking Studio in Italy, as well as studying etchings with Peter Petengill at Wingate Studio in New Hampshire, and screen printing with Tony Clough at Serio Press in Los Angeles. In September 2016, Reemtsen participated in the visiting artist printmaking program at the University of Central Florida’s Flying Horse Editions studio. Reemtsen’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and is part of the Twentieth Century Fox and AT&T corporate collections.
We look forward to exhibiting these works on our stand at Art Miami in December later this year. Please contact [email protected] with any enquiries.
